This invention relates to a method for production of fiber-reinforced composite material, and a casting mold for producing the same.
As the method for producing the fiber-reinforced composite material having a metal matrix, there have so far been known an autoclave method, a sintering method, a hot-press method, and so on. Of these methods, the autoclave method affords the use of a fiber shaped body, into which an alloy material to be the matrix can be penetrated or impregnated in its molten state under pressure, so that the method is advantageous in its low degree of the fiber rupture. On the other hand, however, the manufacturing step in this method is complicated, and, in view of its use of a pressurized container or vessel, the degree of pressure application is limited with the consequence that reinforcement of the matrix per se, shaping of the body into a desired configuration, and making of a partial composite body in a structural object such as, for example, reinforcement of the head part of a piston for an automobile engine, and so forth with such composite body becomes difficult.
The sintering method and the hot-press method, on the other hand, mainly use powders of metals and their alloys as the matrix. Therefore, these methods require mixing of the powder and the fiber to constitute the desired composite body, and, in their process steps, must apply pressure to the mixed material until the solid phase of the material is attained, as a result of which the fiber material tends to be ruptured, and no sufficient reinforcement by the fiber material can be attained. Moreover, the methods are difficult to carry out the shaping of the mixed material into desired configurations, the making of the partial composite structure in the shaped body, and the reinforcement of the matrix.